Interview: The First British Astronaut Helen Sharman

Newscast

BBC

Politics, News

4.4 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today we speak to the first British astronaut Helen Sharman.

Helen went to space in 1991 after responding to a radio advert calling for people to apply to become Britain’s first astronaut. After 18 months of intensive training she spent eight days in space conducting experiments.

Adam and Helen talk about living in the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War, whether humans really will make it to Mars in the next decade, and the Nasa astronauts stuck in space.

You can join our Newscast online community here: https://tinyurl.com/newscastcommunityhere

Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Chris Gray with Gemma Roper. The technical producer was Jonny Hall. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The editor is Sam Bonham.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:04.7	Hello, this is the latest of our special newscast episodes
0:08.1	where instead of rattling through the day's news,
0:10.3	we sit down and have a long chat
0:12.4	with an interesting person who has been in the news at some point.
0:16.0	And today's guest is Helen Sharman, who in 1991 became the first ever British astronaut.
0:23.2	This was after she answered an advert
0:25.2	and took part in a competition
0:26.9	to do a space mission that was sponsored by a group
0:29.8	of British companies working with the then Soviet Union.
0:33.8	And she went up, she came back down, and ever since she has been enthosing people about science
0:39.2	and space.
0:40.2	Newscast.
0:41.2	Newscast from the BBC
0:48.3	Helen hello hello you've been on newscast a few times but this is the first time you've been here.
0:53.2	I know and it's wonderful. In our facility.
0:55.9	So yeah, thanks for coming in. So we'll talk about lots of space and science related issues,
1:01.2	but I just wanted to do your backstory first because as an
1:04.3	80s kid watching news around every day obviously you going to space in 1991 was
1:09.8	it was a big deal but just explain to people when you first thought that was even a
1:14.5	possibility for you as a person. Oh it was never a possibility growing up at all it
1:19.4	was just not on the cards no even not a hint.
	...

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